The new nokia N8 will be available soon and the sound quality seems promising refering to gsmarena. I think this might be a good alternative to the iphone. Still I doubt it features a line out so that kind of spoils the fun. Let me know what you think.

Update 20 Sep 2010: Recently we decided to add some additional testing in our usual audio quality testing routine. The numbers we've published so far reflect the phone performance when plugged into an active amplifier (i.e. your car stereo or your home audio system). Since recently, we started testing each phone two times. The second try is with headphones attached. As it turns out in many cases the added resistance of the headphones makes the audio output quality worse.

We use a pair of AKG headphones with impedance of 32 ohms for each of those special second runs.

I currently own a N97 it looks like the N8 is using the same chip as it has exactly the same frequence responce etc as the older n97, the n97 sounds fantasic but needs a amp to drive anything 12ohm it's really weak, but the quality of the sound is fantasic, the sound is really crisp/clear it has the crisp and clearness of a £200 amp, it's also very netruel and like the graph suggests lacks a bit of low bass the soundstage is quite wide and you can clearly pick out individual sounds easily with a decent set of cans, once you pair it with a amp to bring out the bass and give the sound more power/fullness it sounds really very good, i use my n97 with my fiio E7, the E7 brings out bass and gives a slightly more fuller/powerful sound while retaining the oringal crisp/clearness.

I would highly recommend the N97/N8 as a portable player if you enjoy a really crisp/clean netruel sound but if you plan to use anything above 12ohm with it you would definitly need a amp.

Well, I'm staying w/Android myself. I like this, but it's just not worth it any longer - now that all my apps & games will be transferred over to any new Android device I buy. W/this I'd need to purchase all new stuff again, not good for me, but others might see differently.

Once an iphone user, always an iphone user. Started with iphone 2g years back, sold used other brand phones such as; samsung omnia hd, htc hd, nokia 5800, n95, n97 ...list goes on and on. And came back to iphone field with 3gs last year and iphone 4 1 month ago...so for me nothing replaces my iphone, not sound quality wise though just daily usage as a smartphone.Edited by Firefighter - 10/13/10 at 2:17pm

@Firefighter: I think I'm like that w/Android now, as I've gotten used to the way it works for me. I wish my Droid 2 had better SQ (the iPhone's have better SQ IMO, especially the iPhone 4 I tried out) for mp3 playback, but it's doable for now. Eventually these manufacturers of Android devices will get a bit more serious about the audio playback (the exception seems to be Samsung, w/the Galaxy S line), and I'm quite patient ATM. I do have a great phone, and I'm happy to wait for a replacement down the road. Too bad it won't be the sweet Nokia N8 - it's a fantastic piece of kit.

I currently own a N97 it looks like the N8 is using the same chip as it has exactly the same frequence responce etc as the older n97, the n97 sounds fantasic but needs a amp to drive anything 12ohm it's really weak, but the quality of the sound is fantasic, the sound is really crisp/clear it has the crisp and clearness of a £200 amp, it's also very netruel and like the graph suggests lacks a bit of low bass the soundstage is quite wide and you can clearly pick out individual sounds easily with a decent set of cans, once you pair it with a amp to bring out the bass and give the sound more power/fullness it sounds really very good, i use my n97 with my fiio E7, the E7 brings out bass and gives a slightly more fuller/powerful sound while retaining the oringal crisp/clearness.

I would highly recommend the N97/N8 as a portable player if you enjoy a really crisp/clean netruel sound but if you plan to use anything above 12ohm with it you would definitly need a amp.

Well not exactly though,

Test

Frequency response

Noise level

Dynamic range

THD

IMD + Noise

Stereo crosstalk

Nokia N97

+0.04, -0.27

-90.7

90.7

0.0048

0.896

-89.5

IMO I think the N97 doesn't sound near as good as the xpressmusic 5800. The xpressmusic sounds way fuller instead of the cold sound the n97 produces. Still the preference kind of depends on the cans you're using.

I agree on sticking with a brand. Most things I read about Nokia phones is about the bad software, symbian, but since I am used to it really doesn't matter. Though I think an iphone would be better.